I have a coffee table again!

It's been years since we've had a coffee table. We gave away our oval cherry coffee table away to Salvation Army years ago when Catherine was learning to walk.

I saw this Broyhill table at a store a few weeks ago and felt like I just had to have it. Yesterday Bobby and I were out for a little bit (I was getting cabin fever and had to get out of the house) and I showed it to him. He liked it, and the price was great, so we had them put a hold tag on it, we went to Salvation Army to get rid of the 7 bags of clothes in the back of the van so that we could fold the back seat down and take it home. I'm so excited! I can't wait to put some fall decorations on the bottom shelf (as to not to obstruct the view of the TV - only request from Bobby) ;)

We went out to lunch, then we ran over the my ENT's office - there's a swollen spot at the base of the scar and it has me concerned. I've taken all my antibiotics that he prescribed, and I haven't had any fever symptoms so it doesn't seem like an infection. He said the skin looked really healthy, but he took a sample to of the fluid under the skin. My pathology reports weren't back (my appt. was supposed to be today - but I went in a day early because of the bump) but he did go ahead and remove the stitches. I'll go back next Monday for another Post-Op appt.

I'm tired, and going to take a nap - I'll catch you up on other happenings later!

Edited to add...

I just added a slide show (located on the side bar to the right) with the album I created for my sister Teresa. I wanted to create something to cheer her up while she's going through chemo. I sent this out before my surgery, but I didn't want to share it here, until I knew that she received it. When I talked to her today, she said she got it (and loved it!) Yeah. I just felt the need to create something beautiful for her - she is so beautiful inside and out and I wanted her to really know how much I love her. It's a 6x6 mini tabbed album from K&Co. When you look at it closed, you see 4 tabs "Love, Family, Friends, Faith" then when you flip it over and look at it from the back you see 4 more tabs "Joy, Simple Pleasures, Shopping & Treats" it's truly a "girlfriend" album full of yummy colors/papers and lots of fun techniques. Almost every page has a tag hidden away in a pocket sleeve. There are spaces for journaling, photos and anything else she'd like to add to the album.

I'm okay

I had my surgery late Wednesday morning. Everything went fine, both lumps have been removed (no damage to the nerves down my arm - I can shrug my left shoulder) and have been sent off to pathology.

I'm just really tired, and sore. It hurts to move my neck around too much, so I've been trying to keep still. Of course my throat hurts from being tubed during the surgery. The anesthesiologist did a great job of adding medicine to the IV before I woke up so I wasn't nauseous this time - which is great. Last time I had surgery I threw up for hours afterwards.

I think one of the worst things about going into surgery is not putting on make up or being allowed to wear contacts. :) I looked pretty pale after the surgery - no color in my lips even.

Warning: Hideous picture to follow!

I have a follow up appointment with my ENT next Tuesday to have the stitches removed. Today I was able to remove the large bandage, apply ointment and get my first glimpse at my scar. It runs along the crease in my neck, which is a good thing, it will hide pretty easily as it ages. :) Yeah!

Can you see how swollen it is...yucky!

I was looking for a larger band-aid and I couldn't find any. Abby said "That's okay Mommy, you can use my Care Bear band-aids!" That girl is so sweet! I told her that it would take two to cover it up, and she says "That's okay, I don't mind sharing them with you!" :) Love that girl!!!

Okay, I have to confess...looks like I didn't throw out all my huge clothes...these jammies are huge (I wore them when I was a huge pregger!). I've got to get some new jammies! At least these were nice and comfy - with the button up top I was able to get it on/off without bothering the sore area.

Bobby's taking Abby to her dance lesson tonight, Jenn has taken Catherine to her Cheer practice...so I'm off to take a nap. Love you all - thanks for all your prayers!

Clean that closet

Sounds like a game show doesn't it?! :) LOL

Bobby and I worked on laundry together this past weekend (it was fun working together with him - he's such a riot!) and he brought up the box of trash bags. We weeded through the closet and threw out everything that was a L, XL or XXL as we are both now a S or a M :D What a great feeling that was. Now we have 6 bags of clothes to send off to charity. It actually kind of breaks my heart a little, because most of it is really, really nice clothes. It's hard to give away practically brand new articles.

Keep it case we chunk back up again? No way! Why give ourselves the excuse to put the pounds back on? It took a lot of work to loose the weight, and it's not coming back on! It shouldn't be easy to get fat again. Trust me, I can't afford to buy another wardrobe anytime soon - there's motivation right there! :) LOL psst.....besides, the styles change so often that there's just no need.

Did I ever tell you that my laundry closet (they're hidden in a closet behind two folding doors) is located upstairs in the hallway between the two bedrooms? The day we settled on the house, we came in and painted the living room, upstairs hallway and this laundry closet (a Martha Stewart type of soft linen blue). Since then, I've added a strand of white lights. It really cheers up the space and makes laundry just a little more cheerful (so does the photos and cheery little tins to hold all the little things that are found hiding in pockets - the green one holds my favorite.....money, the other two hold lots of little gems from the girls)



---Minus 12 hours until surgery to get rid of these two lumps---I wanted to get a good picture of my neck before my scar makes it's appearance.... LOL

Wake me up when September ends...

:) Gotta love Green Day! -The freaks!

While we were out and about this weekend, Catherine sitting in her booster seat in the van and out of no-where says "Wake Me Up When September Ends". We laughed because it was funny, with it being mid-September. I thought it would be a cool blog title and made a mental note.

Now, anybody that knows me well, knows that I stink at knowing who sings what, what the title of a song is and so forth. Needless to say, I am not a huge music video fan but with blogging the title I thought I needed to see the video. I think I'm the last person in the world to know what this song is really about. I had no idea that that's what was going on...I guess I figured it was something else.

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Catherine just amazes me with how many songs she knows. She has such a wide taste of music (much to Bobby's credit for exposing her to all types - age appropriate of course). Her little digital music player (why aren't they called DMP's since actually most aren't really MP3 players?) has a few songs on there, we need to load it up with more because she's constantly singing to the radio and saying "Oh, I love this song!". She's so cute toting her pink I-Dog and MP3 player in the little pink bag - it has been the best purchase! She's always listening to music, singing and dancing. She's too cute!

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Abby - what a mess she is! She's been playing in the dress up box today. She pulled out a TIGER costume, dressed up and started quoting the TIGGER Movie (it was on Disney over the weekend so it was fresh in her memory) she had me laughing so hard! Later she was in a cheer leading outfit with mis-matched pom-poms creating her own cheers jumping around.

Before I forget I've got to tell the first Abby/Kindergarten story that her teacher told me during the PTO picnic.
-Her teacher walks up to me saying "Oh, I've got a story for you!".
Instant panic sets in...you know the feeling! I said something like "Uh-oh, I told you I was worried about her!" Thinking "Just what has Abby done now - school had only been a week....!" :)
-She laughs, and says "No, No - nothing bad, something that was just funny" continuing she says that they were cutting something...
I knew where this was going - Abby holds scissors upside down pointing towards her - completely backwards...with many attempts to teach her to hold it the correct way I fail each time because she's so darn stubborn!
-She said that she showed Abby the correct way to hold the scissors and Abby says "I know, but I like to hold them my way!". The teacher patiently explained that it wasn't safe, and that she needed to hold them the correct way, the teacher started to walk away and heard Abby saying to the other kids at the table "Fine, but when I'm home, I'm going to hold them MY way"
The teacher tells me that the "5-year old" switch turned on, and before she knew it, she turned and said "Well, when you're in MY classroom you'll hold them MY way" She laughed saying she couldn't believe she reverted to a 5-year old's level at retorting. :) LOL I'm just glad that I'm not the only one that has ever done that! :)

Oh....this is funny....tonight was a booster night for the cheerleaders. Jenn's hubby took the 3 cheer leading girls out for this tonight, Catherine came home and was telling us all about her evening on how they raised lots of money. She said how one family would give money if they did a cheer for them; one mom said she didn't have any money, but her two kids ran up one with $1, and one with a $5 Catherine said thank you, but she couldn't take the little boy's $5 bill because that was too much for him to give! LOL She also told of how one older lady had a walker and a tube to help her breath and she didn't have any money to give. Catherine said "That's okay, because I think she couldn't afford it because she had to many hardships"
She's so sweet and thoughtful but defiantly not a good fundraiser! :) LOL

Okay I'll stop now...I know I wrote too much tonight....guess I'm just getting nervous. Goodnight!

PTO Stuff

As PTO President, I've already given a presentation to the school during the back-to-school night. Monday night we had our annual PTO - All School Family Picnic. It was a large event to pull off, but with a great team it wasn't too much work on anyone. The rain held off, we had a large turn out with over 350 people. This is when we hold our first PTO meeting too - so I had to speak in front of another large crowd (not my favorite thing). Did you know that more people are afraid of speaking in large groups than dying? True fact! :) - Anyways, that's over!


Last night was the first SPARC (Superintendent/Parent Education Committee) meeting for the school year. This is held at the school district building with the superintendent and other staff members, representatives from all the schools in the district, etc... We worked on creating the agenda for upcoming meetings.

School stuff is keeping me really busy. The girls are in so many things this year - which is keeping them extremely busy too! There's cheer practice for Catherine twice a week (games on Sundays - sometimes Saturdays), AWANA (church program) for both girls once a week, Dance for Abby once a week. Plus the thrown in play dates, homework, etc...

I've got carpool duty tonight, Catherine and her friend has to be at Cheer practice for the re-take of the team photo, then we're off to their first Brownie troop meeting at Girl Scouts of the year, then I've got to drive Abby over to her first dance class. Then I'll make the rounds of picking up all 4 girls and getting everyone home. :) Thank goodness for carpooling - otherwise I think Jenn and I would go insane! :)

I'm off to make sure that Catherine's cheerleader outfit and Girl Scout Sash are all clean and ready for tonight.....and to make dinner!

Abby has glasses now

We took Abby to the optometrist and found out that she has an astigmatism in her right eye. Her left eye is just a little weak, but her right eye is very weak, if we didn't get her glasses this year she would have developed a lazy eye because her brain would have just shut off trying to read from her right eye because it was so weak.

Abby was extremeley stubborn and barely cooperated while trying to pick out her glasses. She kept saying "It's not fair, I don't want glasses". No other kids in her class have them, and she knows this.
Right now her favorite color is blue, and that's all she cared about, was getting blue glasses. A few weeks ago her favorite color was pink....so I hope that she'll be okay with blue glasses for the whole year....because she's stuck with them! :)

They finally came in, we went to pick them up. She was bummed, didn't cooperate for the lady to adjust them to fit her well, but we got them. We walked through the mall, her mood improved (much to our delight).

Abby had some birthday money to spend, so we went down to Build-a-Bear workshop. She picked her bear, chose a heart, did the heart ceremony, the bear got filled with all his fluff, Abby made her wish, inserted her new heart. The bear got stitched up, got a "bath" and make up. Abby choose clothes for her bear (Pajamas, Robe, Slippers, 3 piece outfit with jean skirt and pink/white top, panties, socks and pink cowgirl boots). Abby named her Raspberry Cream, got her birth certificate. We now have a very happy little girl.


Catherine spent her money to pick up a new Marie pillow from Disney's Aristocats. She was a dollar short, so I helped her out....she felt so proud to stand at the cashier and pay for her purchase. She handed over all her ones then counted out her coins for the tax - very grown up! ;)

We had other errands to run last night, and ended up at another shopping plaza. We ate dinner, the girls had cotton candy ice-cream from Maggie Moo's. Then we hit a few shops. At Bath & Body I picked up some foaming soap, and Abby got her Pink Rubber Duckie that she's been wanting ever since she saw it, over a year ago....I finally gave in.

It was a long day yesterday!

Today we have Catherine's game...it looks like the rain will hold off. :) - Have a great weekend!!!!

Surprise Birthday Party

My best friend Jenn planned a really nice surprise birthday party for me on Saturday. I show up at the restaurant to meet her for dinner, and as we're walking to our table we actually enter the private dining room. There were pink and brown balloons, gifts and lots of my friends. What's going on? Oh, it's for me!! :) LOL We enjoyed a great meal, Cosmo's, conversation, laughter and birthday cake. It was a smaller gathering than planned due to the holiday weekend - it was wonderful none-the-less.
Thank you Jenny!!!

It was nice having my own party, I felt very special! :) The last time I had a birthday party was when I was growing up, I'm thinking it was our 13th, which I shared with my twin sister.